[Pave Low]

queue a very swift U-turn by Ubi

Just wanted to let you know, that we now remove the graphics hardware from the hash used to identify the PC.
That means everyone should now be able to switch the GFX as many times as he/she wants.

Source

[DarkAuthority]

They should publish a list of parts that will be tracked. What about RAM and disks and so on? Anyhow, this is bulls*it, as said. Thanks gr.net for staying watchful.

Edited by DarkMagic, 21 January 2012 - 02:14 AM.

[Zeealex]

it might be interesting to see i the hash changes if TheRAM Double Data Rate number changes as those are two things that would indicate it's a different PC the Double Data Rate Change would usually come with a change in motherboard.
it would be a bit stupid if you up or down the Size of the RAM slowly as you go along, that's what i do if i get a defective chip.


As for the hard drive, surely the program would be able to check if the Interface type has changed (IDE/SATA/SATAII/SATAIII) again, if the inteface changes then it would flag up as suspicious to me, especially if the SATA type has changes (again alerting to a motherboard change)

the thing is though is, isn't there a way of changing your hardware ID so it looks like nothing has changed?

Edited by Zeealex, 21 January 2012 - 07:36 PM.

[DarkAuthority]

Frequencies? Huh? Every single part in your computer has its serial number which can be read easily enough. There are tons of applications letting you check these, e.g. HWiNFO, if you want to look into this. The DRM system will very prolly store and watch your parts' numbers for changes. That's it. CPUs and motherboards will be watched for sure. RAM is probable, especially as increasingly more people invest in expensive high quality dies. I doubt disks will be watched at all. GPUs won't be for sure. We shall see how this goes.

In fact this doesn't look as scary as it might appear in the beginning, although of course the best would be to have a completely DRM free game. How often does one change his/her CPU and the motherboard in the main gaming rig? Once or twice in two years?

[ApexMods]

All hardware tracking under the pretense of DRM is complete BS (and a breach of privacy to boot), IMHO. None of their business if I chose to change my RAM or HD every full moon, or reinstall my OS every other day. If you want to upgrade your machine it shouldn't break your game due to licensing issues. What's next? Don't change your hairstyle? Or your clothes? Will we soon have to send DNA samples to "activate" a game, too?

Alex, please think before you keep suggesting even more draconian DRM. RAM frequency changes?!? What about e.g. overclocking? I changed my RAM frequency in my PC about a dozen times during my search for the best overclock. Should I buy about three dozen licenses for a game in the future?

Anyway, all of this is completely moronic and just another way for Ubisoft to inconvenience their paying customers long enough until the very last honest PC gamer turns to piracy. Sheesh... everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

[Zeealex]

Alex, please think before you keep suggesting even more draconian DRM. RAM frequency changes?!? What about e.g. overclocking? I changed my RAM frequency in my PC about a dozen times during my search for the best overclock. Should I buy about three dozen licenses for a game in the future?

Sorry! *facepalm* i completely forgot!
i wouldn't mind but i even overclock my RAM
Edited it now anyway.

the very last honest PC gamer turns to privacy.

do you mean Piracy?

Edited by Zeealex, 21 January 2012 - 07:36 PM.

[cybersidd]

This is not a U-turn, all this is, is that Ubi wants to look less rediculous! As Apex said, any hardware changes or for that matter any change at all in a paying customer's inventory is not Ubisoft's business. If I pay for a game, it shouldn't matter how, where and when I'm going to use it. Hell, I have three computers and a laptop in my house I should be able to run it in all those machines without issues. On one hand you are paying money and are still subject to the whims of this spectacularly stupid DRM and on the other hand you can just pirate the game for free and you dont have to worry about any DRM as they get cracked sooner or later anyways, which method would you choose?

Who is the guy who's responsible for these inexplicable decisions in Ubi? lol! Compare this with consoles, no DRM no platform specific checks, I can easily exchange games with friends etc etc, why the hate for PC gamers?

[Papa6]

why not have DRM do a motherboard check each motherboard when checked is different in terms of serial numbers enough said.

[Zeealex]

thats what i initially said, it does make sense to do that, doesn't it?

[ApexMods]

the very last honest PC gamer turns to privacy.

do you mean Piracy?

Ouch. Yep, that's what I meant. Edited.

[petsfed]

It occurred to me that more than just trying to make life harder for pirates, this is meant to make life harder for anyone with the temerity to resell a game after they've grown tired of it. Then, the game publisher doesn't receive a cent for that transaction, unless they make it so some part of the game can only be used a limited number of times (as in "free" DLC that you have to buy for a used game, or Ubisoft's move with console games, "free" multiplayer provided you bought the game new).

[will wabbit hunter]

ubisoft is blind. they don't need to go so heavy on people who are doing nothing wrong. they should tie there games to steam like other games have done of late. doing that would be a wise choice. they should not do this hardware thing at all.

[shadowblade]

Totally agree, they should remove all bricks and mortar copies, make it entirely digital download only and via steam. They would be able to sell it for less and save on packaging/printing costs. On the DRM scale, Steam is the least intrusive one out there. It just checks to make sure its legit with your account and away it goes. And nobody wants to really ###### with steam over piracy as they close your account down permanently if you do. No second chances. Which means if you have a large catalogue of games then just about all of them go useless because the account linked to the steam API to run the software is literally void. I can't think of a better deterrent.

Ubisoft have to think outside of the box on this one

[101459]

This is disappointing, and it looks like once more we'll see those that pirate the game in fact get the 'better user experience' while those of us that pay to play will once more suffer flaky punitive DRM all in the name of 'anti-piracy theater'. What's shocking is that all parties concerned know this is total dog and pony show/sham; DRM has no effect on piracy, has a proven negative impact on sales, and as historically has been the case -- many paying customers will have to resort to using DRM circumventing hacks to make the game playable on their PC as the sheer number of PC configurations is never adequately taken into account with DRM middleware development.

So honest paying Customers may again be confronted with the moral quandary via Ubisoft's 'new' scheme: if they can't get the (non-returnable) game they paid for to work due to DRM issues; do they resort to circumventing DRM just to get access to part of what they paid for? And what happens to the loyal paying Customer that has a power surge destroy their system; are they SOL when they buy new hardware to replace what was fried or the cascade of failures that happen in the days that follow? And what happens if Ubisoft rolls-over into into too many years of too much red-ink, and various franchises and/or studios are cut, shut-down or abandoned, will we be hung out to dry with an unplayable game?

Edited by 101459, 22 January 2012 - 09:40 PM.

[CR6]

I was just at Zellers (Canadian equivalent of Walmart/Target) and saw copies of Rainbow 6 Lockdown for Cdn $7.99 (in "earth-friendly cardboard packaging to boot). I actually have a soft spot for Lockdown and think the multiplayer could have been great if it allowed mods and wasn't tied down to Ubi's multiplayer matching service

Anyways, I was thinking of picking up all 4 copies there for an old LAN setup me and a few friends play on but then I read the box that said something along the lines that the "DRM may not work with and possibly cause problems with some optical drives" and remembered the ridiculous Starforce copy protection that came with the game.

Needless to say I dropped it like a hot potato. Just goes to show Ubi's short-sighted thinking adding DRM that will cripple sales in the long run.